Yunshan Li [Week 12]: The Power of Mindsets
Week 12: The Power of Mindsets – 3/2 - [6:02PM].
If there is one thing that I have learned from APES this year, it is that everything has a good side and a bad side. For example, we are always taught that recycling is good as it brings numerous advantages such as reducing pollution and saving material. However, even the beneficial practice of recycling has its flaws: it is expensive and the process results in pollutants of harmful chemicals. This idea that everything has its advantages and disadvantages comes up frequently in our study of solutions to environmental problems and applies to everything in life.
This brings us to the power of mindset. Since everything in our lives has its pros and cons, the way we choose to view them can dramatically affect how these things impact us. Studies have shown that an optimistic mindset can make tasks easier and more enjoyable to do and help people achieve success in life, while a pessimistic attitude will only limit people and hold them back. Someone with a positive attitude is more likely to persevere and keep trying even if a terrible obstacle gets in their way because they choose to look on the bright side of things.
When I was young, I hated going to swim meets. On the way to the competition, terrible scenarios of all the ways I could embarrass myself always flooded my head. What if I am the slowest one? What if I get disqualified because I made a mistake? These negative thoughts would make swim meets extremely stressful and unenjoyable for me. Eventually, I accepted swim meets as something I have to go to and tried my best to enjoy them. I remembered how I would be able to see my friends at these meets and hang out with them and how my parents would bring bags of delicious snacks to fuel me up for the race. Gradually, I learned to have fun at swim meets with a positive mindset!
Hey Yunshan! It is certainly interesting to think of everything in terms of a game of pros and cons, and is a good way to move through life since you take the time to think about how an action that is going to benefit you might harm others. Mindset certainly plays an important role as good and bad are merely perceptions of things and the attention that one person might hate is something that someone else might desperately. I am glad that you managed to get over your fear of swim meets and it is heartening to see a real life example of a someone who managed to truly change their mindset for the better.
ReplyDeleteHey Yunshan! A proper optimistic mindset can change the way we tackle problems in life, both at school and at home. A positive outlook can shield us from letting negative comments or irrelevant abusive actions poison our day and productivity. In addition to a positive outlook, having a confident perception will also play a key role in mediating our daily social and academic output. Being sure of ourselves can build up control and strength which will prove to be extremely beneficial in the long run. I know personally, being sure of myself can make me feel better about myself, Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Yunshan! My dad is always telling me that if you think positive, then good things will happen to you, and your blog post reminded me of that. It is actually valuable advice that I didn't realize the significance of until I got older. Choosing to look at things with an optimistic and positive mindset is good for our confidence and well-being, especially when we make it a habit to reframe our thoughts in this way. It is definitely true that our mindsets play a really big role in everything we do, and thinking of things in a positive way will allow us to be more likely to do them. My mom also says that if you miss a good opportunity, another better one will be waiting for you in the future. I've started thinking this way to build more confidence in myself whenever things don't work out. It's great that you learned to enjoy swim meets, and it really shows how changing our mindset can be difficult but also greatly beneficial.
ReplyDeleteHey Yunshan, the power of mindset really is extremely impactful on the effects of the tasks you set yourself to. Similar to how much you hated swim meets as a child, I remember I faced the same attitude towards playing piano. Every day, my parents would force me to practice piano for at least an hour, and I faced this daily task as a mindless tedious chore and something to be faced with dread and dislike. This was the attitude I had for piano until the age of thirteen, when I finally finished my piano testing curriculum and my parents agreed to leave me alone on the task of piano. I did not touch the instrument for almost half a year, but when I began playing it again, I realized that I actually like the instrument. This complete flip-around of mindset towards the instrument has since made me an avid pianist, and I have deeply interested myself in its field.
ReplyDeleteThere is a balance to strike with positive mindsets. It’s very easy to slip into toxic positivity with one but it is beneficial for people to be able to see the upside to a point. I struggle with the balance between validating my negative emotions while not allowing myself to just wallow in the negatives. I grew up in quite an invalidating environment, where the only response I would get is “just keep moving” or “it’s okay” when what I was looking for was a “yeah that sucks”. I do think it’s important to be able to see the positive but I think it’s even more important for us to know where our balance is.
ReplyDeleteYunshan, I was able to relate to this blog post on a personal level. The right mindset is truly what I think leads people to succeed. The example you use about swim meets is something I can relate to personally, especially this past week. On Friday, we had our first school swim meet of the season and let me tell you I was so nervous. I was so scared that everyone would stare at me, critique me, and most importantly I was scared of letting my team down but after doing my first event I felt a sense of accomplishment: I just did that. After that, my mindset and feeling about the whole meet did a 180. I think one way to overcome the power of failure and disappointment has on you is to face it because once you actually do it most of the time it is not as bad as we make it out to be. However, that is really hard to do for many people, including me, but hopefully it is something that more people will learn to do.
ReplyDeleteAmratha, this blog post was definitely relatable for me. Like you making the badminton team, I made the swim team. Though I am very happy and passionate about swimming, the 2 hour practice has definitely affected my school work in good and bad ways. The good thing is that it has pushed and motivated me to not procrastinate as much as I used to; it motivates me to use class time to get throughout the day and flex to do my homework so when I go home I do not have much to do. It is also bad because on days I do not have free time in classes when I come back from a one a one and a half hour practice and take a shower I have absolutely no motivation to do my homework or study for my tests. I am still working on trying to find a balance between because I want to continue swimming but also do well in school. Hopefully, we both will find a balance between school and academics.
ReplyDeleteHi Sophia, this post reminded me of my favorite quote: "Remember, every year two million people die of dehydration. So it doesn't matter if the glass is half full or half empty. There's water in the cup. Drink it and stop complaining." This quote really spoke to me upon me finding it, and it still does now, and it helps me realize that my problems aren't as big as I make them seem. Whenever I am feeling depressed or unmotivated and I think of this quote, I realize that I am so blessed to be where I am today, and the things I'm being upset about are very temporary and not that big of a deal. Mindset is really important when it comes to your outlook in life and can really change the way you are able to do things.
ReplyDeleteHey Sophia, I can really relate to you on how you viewed going to swim meets and I am glad that you were able to enjoy the swim meets too. Initially, I was never confident in my diving skills, so I was scared to embarrass myself when I belly flop. Now, even though my diving is still not good, I learned to have a more positive mindset and believe in myself more. I found that the negative thoughts that I would have always centered around how others viewed me, so I learned that in maintaining a positive mindset, I should not be so concerned with others’ opinions and be more confident. Seeing how looking at things more optimistically has positively impacted me, I hope that I can become even more confident and work to eliminate the negative mindsets I have in other areas of my life. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Hanyi, the thought of not having the internet has crossed my mind in the past before and I agree that it does seem unfathomable. There have been occasions in the past where my neighborhood has had power outages and even not having electricity was difficult to handle. Being unable to heat food, have warm water, or turn on the lights freely truly made me feel restricted. I couldn’t imagine how it would have been if I couldn’t contact my friends or entertain myself with social media. Even though we are extremely dependent on the internet, hopefully this will not prove to be a weakness in the future.
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